Using Styles

There are a large number of different question styles supplied with Snap XMP. They are all available for use in Snap XMP Desktop. We have developed a sample questionnaire that shows the different question styles. You can use this questionnaire to see how the questions behave in a live interview.

Using Style Picker

The Style Picker tool is an easy way of applying a question style to questions in your questionnaire. This tool is only available in Design mode . Style Picker allows you to format a question by selecting a style of your choice and viewing this style in the preview window before applying it to the questionnaire. This window shows you how the question will look in the questionnaire with the selected style applied. It is a useful and easy tool to use as it allows you to try out different question styles and see how they would look in a preview window without actually applying it to a question in the questionnaire.

1. Select the question you would like to change.
2. Select More Styles from the drop-down list of style names, or click the Style Picker button .
3. The Style Picker dialog appears with the selected question displayed in the preview pane. A list of all of the styles in the current questionnaire is displayed on the left of the dialog box. To show the question with a different style, select a new style in the list. The preview will change accordingly.

4. Showing ‘All Variables’ displays all the questions from the current questionnaire with their associated style name in a list. This can be useful if you are not really familiar with style names as it allows you to pick styles by variable rather than by style name.
5. The question will have been converted and will show with its altered style in the Questionnaire Window.

Temporary Question Styles

Changes made to whole elements within a question in Design Mode will create a new temporary style called like followed by the original style name. For example, if you select an Open Ended question and make changes to that question, the question will be renamed as like Open Ended.

You can select what you would like to view in the preview window by selecting from ‘All Styles’, ‘All Variables’, ‘Named Styles’, ‘Unused Styles’ or ‘Used Styles’ in the Style drop-down list.

Using Style mode to modify question styles

Style mode allows you to make modifications to the styles, whereas Design mode allows you to modify the individual questions. Style mode can be used to make consistent changes to all questions of the same style, without having to make individual question changes.

When you change a style it affects all questions using that style. Other questions may also change, depending on the style selection box setting. In Style mode, the style selection box is the first drop-down list on the toolbar. In the diagram below, it is set to All Styles.

The following example refers to a Multi Choice question being selected:

Style Selection Box	Description
Multi Choice	Changes will apply to the selected question and all other questions that use the same style as the selected question. In addition, any styles that are derived from the style of the selected question where settings still remain the same will adopt the changes.
All ‘Multi Choice’ styles’	Settings will apply to the selected question and all other questions that use the same style as the selected question. In addition, the settings will apply to any questions that use styles derived from the current style. For example, “like multi choice” questions will also change.
All styles	Settings will apply to all styles. The settings will be stored as the default style settings.

The style selection box

The following rules explains how styles are applied to other questions according to the value selected in the style selection box:

• questions that use the same Style as the highlighted question WILL be affected, and all the attributes that are changed will be passed on to those questions
• questions that are not based on the Style of the highlighted question will NOT be affected at all
• questions whose Style is based on the selected question’s style will be affected IF the attribute that was changed had the same value in both styles

For example, Open Next is based on Open First. An Open First question is selected and the Style Selection Box is set to Open First. The Font attribute is changed from Arial 10 Bold to Times New Roman 11. If the Font setting in Open Next is also Arial 10 Bold (i.e. the same as that in Open First), it will also be changed to Times New Roman 11. If the setting was not the same as that for Open First, it will remain unaltered.

To summarise, a change made to one style (style A) will only be made to another style (style B) if the following conditions apply:

• Style B is based on Style A.
• The two styles initially had the same value for the Style Attribute that has been changed.

Note that once the change has been made to Style B it may then be made to Style C if the same conditions apply, and so on.

Based on Styles

Not all the Styles will behave in the same way when changes are made; some Styles are based on others. In addition to the ten pre-set styles, there is a Default style that is considered the parent style for five of the pre-set styles: Multi Choice, Grid First, Open Ended, Open First, Title and Instruction. In the same way, Title is the parent style for Sub Title.

The ten pre-set styles are Grid First, Grid Next, Instruction, Multi Choice, Open Ended, Open First, Open Next, Other, Sub Title, and Title.

All Styles are derived from the default, either directly or through other styles. The diagram below shows how each style is derived.

Every questionnaire contains all of the above styles and may contain more custom styles. The default settings are defined in the default.qsf template. There are many more style templates available to you as part of the Snap Desktop, allowing you to try different layouts, backgrounds, fonts, etc., as well as the ability to create your own customised style templates.

To set up a custom default style, set all the style attributes as required and save the style as a new template. The new settings can then be used on another survey by applying that template to the new questionnaire.

Any changes made to a question in Design Mode will create a new style called “like (followed by the style name)”. For example, if you select a Multi Choice question and make changes to that question, the question will be renamed as “like Multi Choice”. If you are going to use the same layout/format on more than one question you should give the style a name by clicking on the Style Properties button on the questionnaire design toolbar.

Style attributes

Each Style has Style Attributes which affects a number of different question elements. You can either set the value of each attribute, or it can inherit its value from other styles. The table below shows the full list of Style Attributes.

Attribute	Affects
Alignment	Name, Text, Grid Name, Grid Label, Position, Code Label, Code Value, Data, Code Box, Code Go To, Footnote
Background	Question Area, Answer Area, Name, Text, Grid Name, Grid Label, Position, Code Label, Code Value, Code Box, Box Area, Code Offset, Code Gutter, Code Verge, Code Go To, Footnote
Borders	Question
Boxes	Box Style, Check Mark, Force Square, Drop-down, Image
Break	Column Break, Page Break, Section Break
Columns	Number, Arrangement, Full width
Find	Find, Next, Previous, Find and Replace
Font	Name, Text, Grid Name, Grid Label, Position, Code Label, Code Value, Data, Check Mark, Code Go To, Footnote – Insert images, HTML etc
Margins	Name, Text, Grid Name, Grid Label, Position, Code Label, Code Value, Data, Check mark, Code Go To, Footnote (each attribute has a top, bottom, left and right margin)
Numbering	Number Format
Positions	Question, Code Box
Response	Response Type
Show	Name, Text, Grid Name, Grid Label, Position, Code Label, Code Box, Code Leaders, Code Value, Space Before, Code Go To, Footnote, Line Before, Semantic Scale, Grid Leaders, As Drop-down, as Map Control, as Slider Control
Tabs	Name, Text, Grid Label, Code Offset, Code Gutter, Code Verge, Code Values, Code Go To, Open Label

The elements of a question

The Style of a question defines its appearance in the questionnaire for each of its different Elements (see table below). Each of the Elements can be altered individually in terms of their location on the questionnaire and their individual format.

The examples below show most of the main Question Elements.

The first diagram shows the elements shown: Position (237), Text (“How old are you?”), Name (Q9), Code Labels (“Under 18”, “18-24”, etc.), Code Leaders (the rows of dots), Code Boxes (in a column on the right hand side), Code Values (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) and Footnote (text box below question).
The second diagram provides an example of the elements: Name (Q6), Text (“How do you rate the following?”), Code Labels (“Very Good”, “Good”, etc.), Grid Names (Q6a, Q6b, etc.), Grid Labels (“Speed of service”, “Cleanliness”, etc.), Grid Leaders (the rows of dots) and Code Boxes (the array of 20 boxes).

The Question Elements

Element	Description
Answer Area	The background area around the answer box and label. For use with the Background topic.
Box Area	The area around the answer code box. For use with the Background topic.
Code Box	The box in which a response will be entered either as a tick for a multi- or single-response closed question or as text for an open-ended question. (Set by the Boxes topic)
Code GoTo	Space for instructions concerning questionnaire routing based on response to a particular question.
Code Gutter	The spacing between columns. For use with Tabs and Background topics.
Code Label	The text applicable to a particular potential response for a question.
Code Leader	Markings between the Code Label and the Code Box to help show which label is associated with which box (paper editions only)
Code Offset	The space to the left of the answer code. For use with Tabs and Background topics.
Code Value	The numerical value assigned to a particular response. This is the value that will be entered at the data entry phase of the survey if the interviewee gives the response associated with it.
Code Verge	The space to the right of the answer code box. For use with Tabs and Background topics.
Footnote	A box located below or beside each question, which can be used to display additional text.
Grid Label	The text applicable to a sub-question in a series of grid questions.
Grid Leader	Markings between the Grid Label and the Grid Box to help show which label is associated with which box (paper editions only)
Grid Name	The number of the sub-question in a series of grid questions.
Line Before	A line is inserted before a question. For use with the Show topic.
Name	The number of the question within the questionnaire.
Open Label	The space used for the code label on open questions. For use with the Tabs and Background topic.
Position	The position in the data stream where the response to this question will be stored. There is rarely any reason to show this value on the questionnaire.
Question Area	The background area around the question text. For use with the Background topic.
Space Before	Space can be added before a question. For use with the Show topic.
Text	The question text.

Using the Style Organiser

The Style Organiser tool allows you to view the styles you have used within the questionnaire. Style Organiser is only available in Style mode and can be used to sort styles, as well as rename and make copies of styles. Other views of styles are also available in the organiser.

Click to display the Style Organiser dialog.

Viewing styles

• Select the type of styles you would like to view in the preview window from the Styles drop-down list.

Select All Variables to display all the questions in the current questionnaire in a list. This can be useful if you are not familiar with style names.

• Check the Fit to Window box to fit the question inside the preview window. This is especially useful when previewing titles and subtitles, which normally fit across the width of the whole page.
• Sort the listed styles Sorting option is used to order styles in the style list. There are three choices:
  • By Name lists the styles in alphabetical order.
  • Recently Used First lists the styles in most recently used order.
  • By family lists the styles in the family they belong to. The style families are sorted in alphabetical order.

Creating new styles

Create a new style based on an existing style by clicking the New button. This copies the attributes of the style and allows you to give it a new name.

Managing temporary styles

Snap Desktop creates temporary styles if you edit a question within questionnaire design.

1. You can convert these temporary styles into full re-usable styles by clicking the Properties button and renaming the style. Click OK to save the style.

2. You can also use a temporary style to overwrite the style it was based on, or set it back to being the base style. Click the Re-assign button to display the Extended Style Assignment dialog. What is displayed depends what you have selected
   • Make the style “base style” look like variable changes the base style so it matches the selected style
   • Make all “base style” variables look like variable changes all the variables which have the same style base as the selected one look like the selected one.
   • Assign the style “base style” to variable is used to re-apply the original style to the variable.

Displaying style information

Click the Properties button to display the Style Properties dialog box. You can make changes to style names, or to the way question parts are created. You cannot edit the names of the ten base styles supplied with Snap

Deleting styles

When you Delete a style any questions in that style will be returned to the appropriate base style. You cannot delete the base styles supplied with Snap.

Renaming a style

If you make changes to elements within an individual question and are working within Design mode , the new changes will be saved as a new style called (like Grid First). If you have several questions that will be using the same layout as the (like Grid First) one, then you could choose to rename the style.

1. To rename any of your own styles, switch to Style mode
2. Select one of the questions using the style that needs to be renamed.

3. Select the Style Properties button
4. Click in the Name box at the top of the Style Properties dialog box.
5. Type in a new name and click on OK to save the style name within the current survey.

Style properties

In Style mode , clicking the Style Properties button opens the Style Properties dialog for the currently selected style.

There are four main areas of the dialog box:

Name	Name of the style for which a summary is displayed and the name of the style on which it is based.
Next Object	The type of question to be created once the current question is completed.
Next Part	The part of a question to be created once the current part is completed. Applicable for Grid First and Grid Next, Open First and Open Next, and Multi Choice.
Previous	The type of question to be created immediately before this question.

Use the button to change any of the settings in terms of Next Object, Next Part or Previous. Any changes that are made to individual style properties remain with that style for the current survey. The changes are not transferred to other surveys created with Snap.

To alter any of the settings in the copy fields, ensure that the appropriate Clone Next Object, Clone Next Part or Clone Previous is checked, at which point the various elements of a question will be highlighted. At this point, the cursor or the space bar can be used to identify which element is to be copied.

Style Templates

You can design a questionnaire using existing styles and then apply a Style Template that represents a particular branding in terms of page set-up, colours and layout.

Some pre-defined style templates are supplied with Snap Desktop. These provide a range of alternative layouts and colour schemes. You can also create your own style templates from questionnaires.

Loading a style template

1. With the Questionnaire window open, click to display the Editions and Style Templates dialog.

2. The three tick box fields relate to Page Setup (portrait/landscape etc.), Colours (the individual colors for the background of the questionnaire and the color of all the fonts used in the text of the question and the code labels) and Layout (the arrangement and format of individual styles of questions). If all three options are selected, then the entire format of the template will be loaded.
3. Click Load in the Style Template area.
4. Highlight one of the .qsf files from the list and press Open to load the template in to the questionnaire. The questions will be redrawn using the new Style settings. When you save the questionnaire the new layout/colors will be saved as well.

Saving a template

If you make changes to the styles, you can save them as a template for re-use in other surveys.

You can only save named styles (not like styles) which you have saved in the Style Organiser in Style mode.

1. Click to change to Style mode.
2. Click to display the Style Organiser dialog.

3. Convert any new like styles into full styles by clicking the Properties button and renaming the style. Click OK to save the style.

4. Click to display the Editions and Style Templates dialog.

5. Check the boxes to specify what will be stored in the template. You will need to check the Layout box to store the new styles. If all three options are selected, then the entire format of the template will be loaded.
6. Select Save from the Style Templates area of the dialog.
7. Specify the name of the file to store the information, remembering that template files have the extension .qsf. Click Save to store the template. The new template will now be available to other questionnaires within Snap.